3 Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So, all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

1 Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more;
By Sinel's death, I know, I am thane of Glamis ;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and, to be king,
Stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting?-Speak, I charge you.
[Witches vanish.

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them: Whither are they vanished?
Macb. Into the air: and what seemed corporal, melted
As breath into the wind.-'Would they had stayed!
Ban. Were such things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root2,

That takes the reason prisoner?

Macb. Your children shall be kings.
Ban.

You shall be king.

Macb. And thane of Cawdor too; went it not so?
Ban. To the self-same tune, and words.

Enter ROSSE and ANGUS.

Who's here?

Rosse. The king hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success: and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend,

Which should be thine, or his: Silenced with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o' the self-same day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as tale,
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And poured them down before him.

Ang.
We are sent,
To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.

1 Sinel was Macbeth's father.

2 Henbane, which was supposed to take away the reason.

Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!
For it is thine.

Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives: Why do you
In borrowed robes?

Ang.

Who was the thane, lives yet;

'But under heavy judgment bears that life Which he deserves to lose.

Whether he was combined with those of Norway;

Or did line1 the rebel with hidden help

And vantage; or that with both he laboured

In his country's wrack, I know not;

But treasons capital, confessed, and proved,
Have overthrown him.

Macb.

The greatest is behind.

dress me

Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:
Thanks for your pains.—

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,
Promised no less to them?

Ban.

That, trusted home2,

Might yet enkindle 3 you unto the crown,

Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths ;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.

Cousins, a word I pray you.

Macb.

[Speaks aside with ROSSE and ANGUS. Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.—
[Aside.] This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill; cannot be good :— If ill,

Why hath it given me an earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:

1 Strengthen.

2 Implicitly relied on.

3 Incite.

My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single1 state of man, that function
Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not.

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt.

Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance may

crown me,

Without my stir.

Ban.
New honours come2 upon him
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould,
But with the aid of use.

Macb.

Come what come may;

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
Macb. Give me your favour:

My dull brain was wrought3 with things forgotten.
Kind gentlemen, your pains are registered

Where every day I turn the leaf to read them.

Let us toward the king.

[TO BAN.] Think upon what hath chanced; and, at more

time,

The interim having weighed it, let us speak

Our free hearts to each other.

Ban.

Very gladly.

[Exeunt.

Macb. Till then, enough.-Come, friends.

SCENE IV.-Forres. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX,

and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not Those in commission yet returned?

My liege,

Mal.
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die: who did report
That very frankly he confessed his treasons;
Implored your highness' pardon; and set forth
A deep repentance: nothing in his life
Became him, like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied 5 in his death,

1 Weak.

2 Being come; a participle.

3 Agitated.

4 In the meantime.

5 Resolved.

To throw away the dearest thing he owed1
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art,

To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.-O worthiest cousin!

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.
The sin of my ingratitude even now

Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. 'Would thou hadst less deserved;
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.2
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties

Are to your throne and state, children, and servants;
Which do but what they should, by doing every thing
Safe toward your love and honour.

Dun.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing.-Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.

Ban.

The harvest is your own.

Dun.

There if I grow,

My plenteous joys,

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves

In drops of sorrow. -Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest Malcolm; whom we name hereafter
The prince of Cumberland: which honour must
Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,

And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labour which is not used for you:

1 Owned.

2 You deserve more than my whole wealth could pay.

I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.

Dun.
My worthy Cawdor!
Macb. The prince of Cumberland!-That is a step,
On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

Dun. True, worthy Banquo, he is full so valiant1;
And in his commendations I am fed ;

It is a banquet to me.

Let's after him,

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:

It is a peerless kinsman.

[Aside.

[Exit.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle.

Enter Lady MACBETH, reading a letter.

Lady Macb. "They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives 2 from the king, who all-hailed me, 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with Hail, king that shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver to thee, my dearest partner of greatness; that thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell." Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promised:-Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full of the milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way: Thou would'st be great;

Art not without ambition; but without

The illness should attend it. What thou would'st highly, That would'st thou holily; would'st not play false,

And yet would'st wrongly win: thou'dst have, great Glamis, That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it:

1 Quite as valiant as you have described.

2 Messengers.